The National Association of Broadcasters (N.A.B.), a group that would sell out a frail great grandmother in hospice, now wants more deregulation of the radio industry to the exclusion of consumers like you.
It’s all very exciting. Each fall, old white guys in ill fitting suits, wrinkled button down collar shirts, unpolished shoes and ties fashionable in 1986, American radio broadcasters if you will, gather in a different city to discuss what’s right and wrong with the radio industry, discuss theories, drink a few beers and return home…
People are outraged. People are sad. People are in shock. People are now, finally, speaking up over the execution of one of America’s former great and “heritage” stations, KGO-AM in San Francisco. Why now? What happened last week to KGO has been happening to radio stations, personalities, talk hosts, support personnel and news staffs for…
February 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. There are no planned celebrations. No parades. No planned parties. You’d think someone, somewhere would have popped open a bottle of Dom Perignon by now. But, nothing. Not even from those who lined their pockets and are clearly to blame for tearing the…
It’s been almost 20 years ago since the Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.), the National Association of Broadcasters (N.A.B.), Congress and then President Bill Clinton all teamed up to reinvent broadcasting with the historic Telecommunications Act of 1996, the first major rewrite of regulations since the 1930’s. With this combined brain power and political and business…
You can imagine my surprise last Friday night when the Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.) announced it was moving forward with its plan to help AM radio survive. “Ratchet Rule?” Marconi must have come up with that. Change it. Transmitters that decrease carrier levels when low or no audio is present to save electricity? Sign us…
A lot can be learned from data and tracking it. For example, in radio and television, there are Nielsen ratings. You analyze ratings by the week, month or over a year to develop and see a trend. Is the station or program going up or down? Trending up is good. Trending down is bad. One…
AM radio, the senior broadcast band, no longer has the luxury of time to correct its problems, if those problems can be corrected at all. This week there’s an assembly of “radio people” in Atlanta. The annual NAB/RAB Fall Radio Show, where station owners get to have free drinks on the vendors gathered trying to…
I’ve been reading a lot about the Telos/25-7 Systems’ Voltair “black box” that some claim gives an unfair advantage to radio stations trying to game Nielsen’s PPM methodology. The box allegedly increases the chances the embedded PPM “watermark” on a station’s signal will be detected on a panelist’s meter. Is the Voltair unfair? I guess…
Mark Twain, the legendary American writer and humorist said, “Buy land, they’re not making anymore.” History has shown the wealthiest in the world today and throughout history gained significant wealth by acquiring land. The world’s royalty have wealth because of large land holdings. Many commoners today and in history gained and held their wealth through…
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